Square is hoping to wean America's merchants off of cheques by extending its Cash person-to-person payments service to businesses.
Launched in 2013, Square Cash lets Americans send money to friends and family for free through a linked debit card using only an email address or phone number.
The service is now being extended to businesses and non-profits, with funds paid directly into the recipient's bank account, although they will have to pay a 1.5% fee.
Rather than posting email addresses and phone numbers for the world to use, businesses will instead be able to set up '$Cashtags', unique identifiers, such as $Finextra, that link to payment pages or can be used with the Cash app.
Square claims that $Cashtags will help firms and non-profits market themselves as well as reduce their reliance on inconvenient and insecure cash and cheques.